“But how will we breathe?” has been a question in every person’s mind when thinking about space exploration.
The need to save space and fuel put a limit on the amount of oxygen astronauts can carry with them and the vastness of space and flight times of two years for a one-way trip to Mars rules out frequent replenishing of oxygen and other supplies.
Most of the oxygen on the International Space Station (ISS) is obtained through electrolysis— a chemical process that leverages electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. A separate system converts the carbon dioxide exhaled into water and methane.
However, this method hogs 1.5kW out of the 4.6kW energy budget, about a third of the total energy required to run ISS’s Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) responsible for providing clean water and air to the crew and laboratory animals.
A study published in the scientific journal Nature Communications assesses the viability of replacing existing oxygen and fuel production systems with photoelectrochemical (PEC) devices.
This process is akin to photosynthesis in plants and takes water as input and involves the separation of light harvesting and chemical production. Not only would it drastically diminish the weight and volume of the system, but it would also provide significant gains in terms of efficiency.
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